Discussion Topic

I meant to go up on that one because it was the only old school off width that I never did. But I broke my leg in the summer of 1976 and when I went back to the Valley the only guy who would go up was Yabbo, and he had already done it - with who, I can't say. Maybe Dale or Kauk. I don't know anyone else who has done that route, and it had to be the best off width line in the park. Probably still is. Must be an entirely different experience with big cams.

Great article by Peter.

I did a bunch of climbing with Drummond that year - including the 2nd ascents of Free Wheelin' and Quicksilver. He was very skilled on the open face, and could run the rope with the best of them.

Luke, we came in on the blue line in your photo one time, but closer to the mini-dome in the gully butted up to it. Its smooth sailing and definitely the way to go. I've gone up, down, and even across and back from Snow Shed (sp??) trail. Warbler did a really nice description of it in his Milestone write-up.
Get on it

Larg, I bet it was Dale. He was WAY more motivated then Kauk, and he really dug offwidth. It is hard to imagine that in his day, he would never have done the route.

Culture, you use the upper of #2 in your latest image. Do NOT take the lower of your #2. When you get out of the little brush-choked chute between the dome and that little crappy forested arete prior to traversing to the actual base of the route, it becomes completely clear what to do--- you traverse over to it on very easy 3rd class, following the path of least resistance. At no point should you be 4th classing anything to get to the base of Basket Case; it should all be elementary. If you get into real climbing or anything risky, you are off route.

Zander, your line is drawn too low for the traverse; see Culture's upper #2 as noted in this post.

What is so awful about the BC approach? The brush is dense and very deep. At times we were walking on top of vegetation that was 5 feet deep and would fall through it at times. And all the brush points vigorously downhill, making uphill progress much much more icky. And there is quite a bit of this, you are at 6500 ft or so and higher, a direct southern exposure, no water, and some miles from the road.

Granted it is a terrific place to be, the summit. Like Watkins. So as a mere hike....I can imagine a whole lot of other things to do for hikes other than these two approaches..but as we are all saying, the several climbs are flat-out world class climbs.

EDIT: My Basket Case story reached its final and best form this last year (2011) in Alpinist Magazine; I think Issue #33.

Peter, thanks for the Great story, I probably reading it third or fourth time after every bump.
But only now I realized that number of assents for this route can be count on one hand ..
Donini and TM
Bridwell and Klemens
Haan and Ward
Dale Bart and ?

The pink line for Milestone, or "Orion" as it will probably be known in the upcoming Yosemite guidebook is accurate.

The approach / descent is off though, and I've done it enough times to have it dialed. You exit the ND trail back in the woods well before you can see the backside of Basket Dome. You leave the trail to the left at a dip in the trail, before a slight uphill section to the top of the rounded open ridge which is visible in the upper left of the photo. This is about 300 yds past the end of a long uphill section, which ends at the trail junction to Indian Rock on the left.

Head down the draw to a little meadow and follow the western edge of the meadow down until the terrain changes to steeper angle. This meadow is the headwaters of the seasonal stream which flows down the gully underneath BD's bulging east face. Cross the drainage at this change in terrain angle, and head east, perpendicular to the drainage along the edge of a mostly open flat area for a couple hundred yds, without losing elevation. I think it's the open area above the green line in the middle of the photo.

When the open terrain ends, enter the forest and bush tending in the same direction and descending slightly. You should shortly arrive at the rounded open ridge with views east to Mt Watkins, above and right of the bivy site in the photo. Follow slabs and sandy slopes down to the bivy site.

This route may seem indirect, but it avoids bushwhacking which is abundant any other way.

The bivy site is really nice. From there the blue line is not the way to go.

From the bivy site drop down a steep section into the notch btw the rim and the big triangular shaped slabby dome below and to the right of the bivy site. The photo doesn't show that the dome has a summit with a notch behind it. From the notch, descend wide gully down the backside of the dome to the east, and then follow right along the base of the slabs back around to the west and toward Basket Dome. After some level traversing, several options down steep sandy slopes appear. Definitely don't want to be down in the brush as the blue line goes, but rather above it.

Cross the stream bed to the base of Basket Dome at the biggest fir tree in the gully, growing almost in the streambed - don't descend further to the last crossing option as it is a hellish thicket at that point.

It would be awesome to be out there this time of year - this is a rare opportunity. That little dome has some nice looking moderate 3 to 4 pitch lines on it...

Edit : Peter, just noticed your surprise that I managed Milestone at age 40 - you're a decade off, haha! I'm right behind you, old friend!

Mighty Anders, the "big corner just right of Basket Case" is Straight Jacket and the Scott-Child variation, routes from the 1970's. The gigantic (2nd) corner further right of Basket Case is just to the right of Kevin's Milestone (Orion) route (Milestone plays out on the beautiful smooth face verging on that huge corner/arch) this huge dihedral is not a climb yet, nor the awesome east face of Basket Dome even further right---the mini-wall rising above that crazy steep gully running up toward the summit.

Anders, I looked at the big corner - it was the first thing I saw the morning I woke up on the bivy ledge. There is a good crack in it, but it is fairly dirty and grass filled, kinda like the first corner pitch of The Good Book was when I went up there to clean it with Yabo. The corner is probably 500 ft long and 40 ft deep.

Hmmm...

The wall to its right is a very beautiful one with golden rock for hundreds of feet, steepening to overhanging as it turns the corner to the east and enters the gully. Unclimbed for probably 1500 ft to the right. The rock looks amazing over there and mostly flawless. Mostly.

So I went the "long" aka wrong way, on the way down. It took me about 2 hours to the base from the car. I ran most approach on the trail then had to hike the rest due to cliffs/steepness and route finding. It just over 2 hours on the way back since I knew where I was going. Over 2000 feet of elevation gain from the base of basket dome back to the car.

Lap1 is where I left the North Dome trail on the way down
Lap2 is where I met up with the correct approach (midway down the gully).
Lap3 is near the bottom of basket dome where you would go across to climb Milestone/Orion
Lap4 is the top of the "sub dome" ie the top of the approach gulley.
Lap5 is where I met back up with the trail.

From lap 3 to lap 4 is golden. A good way to get from subdome to the base and vise versa. I still didn't get the XC travel from the North Dome trail to the top of the sub dome quite right. It's hard to see and not quite obvious where the least amount of shrubbery is. I thinking I did better on the way down (leaving at Lap1) but just turned the wrong way when I got near the steep part.

Your lap 3 to 4 was right on, sounds like. You left the trail on the way in a little too early, and then... boldly went where no man has gone before, looks like.

The way to go from the top of the dome is through the clearing/ bivy site just above it, on the east side of the creekbed, and then up and right paralleling that drainage on an open rounded ridge with low angle slabs and sandy slopes. In your last photo with gps coordinates the route is a diagonal line from Lap 4 up and right toward the buttonhook north you took on the way in. You can see how clear it is in the photo

You only go half the distance btw your two trails though, and then jog back left and diagonal thru that open area midway between your way back to the trail, and the start of your cross country walking on the way in. Pretty much parallel to both ways you went, but equal distance from both.

It's about an hour and a half to the base from the car if you get it right.

Alexey, I would love to read subsequent ascent reports too, but there are so very few that have climbed this great route.

Twenty-first century protection (Camalots, etc) would not make this climb really very different. It is not a protection challenge at all. When you are doing the crux, you are only about 10-12 feet above your protection and on a smooth vertical to overhanging wall. If you did put a large cam in at the crux, it would have to be deep. The temptation to pull on it would be terrific, too. The challenge is the offwidth climbing itself, those special few feet that are out of view of the belayer and up around the corner you have turned.

Modern big pro, however, does substantially change Twilight Zone; Left side of Slack; right and left side of Hourglass; Crack of Doom; Excalibur pitches; Narrow Escape; probably Edge of Night, for instance.

Peter, let me express admiration of your ability to describe climbing you did about 30 years ago and only once. The description is so vivid that I can see this glassy stem box crux and you climbing it move by move